Tribute to Cedric
by PactumServa
Summary: When your name is thundered out and the crowd roars after you, your father lifts your hand up and pumps it in the air. He is so proud of you ...


I know there are many sad little ficlets out there about Cedric but the poor boy deserves all of them! Please read and enjoy

Copyright is always J.K Rowling's!

Apologies for any errors found…

**Tribute to Cedric.**

When your name is thundered out and the crowd roars after you, your father lifts your hand up and pumps it in the air. He is so proud of you. You are a little embarrassed, but you take it with good grace. Your adrenaline is pumping, after all. You cannot wait for this third task to commence. I weep for you.

Just before the cannon signals the commencement of your doom, your father catches you in a tight hug, which you return equally strongly. He's so proud of his boy, and you are so ready to become the Triwizard Champion and be remembered for all eternity. Not knowing it, you have just embraced your father for the last time. He will never see you alive again. I weep for him.

The maze is tough. I pray that one of the obstacles will render it necessary for you to send up red sparks, but to no avail. You, like the rest of the contestants, are only slightly injured. That changes when Viktor Krum, under the control of the Imperius, lays _Crucio_ on you. As you writhe in pain, I hope you are knocked unconscious, unable to continue. This does not happen. I weep for you then, because your fate is almost sealed. Your father is still eagerly awaiting you in the stands, surrounded by all your supporters. He is so blissfully unaware that his life will be shattered in less than an hour's time. I weep for him. You are his only child, and he loves you so much.

You have several chances with Harry. As he restrains you from dealing out to Viktor what he so richly deserves, I pray that you will struggle enough so that Harry must resort to knocking you unconscious. As you both race for the Cup and trip over and are attacked by the wild greenery, my only wish is that Harry leaves you there and continues for the cup by himself. But damn his Gryffindor virtues; he saves you then insists you both take it together, for Hogwarts. As the Portkey activates, my heart sinks. You are almost out of time. I weep for you, for you do not know what is about to happen.

When you both tumble into the graveyard, I feel a surge of hopeless pride for you as you suggest for your wands to be held at the ready. You are going to try as much as you are able, but I weep because I know that will not be enough. A last glimmer of hope presents itself when Harry reads the inscription on the tombstone and his forehead starts to burn with pain. He yells at you to return to the Portkey, the damnable Triwizard Cup, and I yell along with him. It should not be your time. You have a proud father who loves you very watch waiting for you back at the stands.

But this time, it is the damnable Hufflepuff traits that are to blame. Helga emphasised the need for loyalty, and you out of all make a fiercely loyal friend. When you refuse to leave, when you position yourself in front of Harry with your wand extended, a part of me dies. The last spark of hope has gone out for you, Cedric Diggory, and I weep. You are but seventeen.

Five words later, you are dead. _Kill – the –spare. Avada – Kedavra_.

A mere few seconds, a measly five words, and the world has suddenly been deprived of a brave young soul with so much future ahead of him. I weep for you, because you are dead. I weep because you will never experience the joys of graduating, of settling down with a family and career, of enjoying the many splendours of the world. But most of all, I weep because there is a lone father still standing in the stands, with nothing to indicate that something has gone so terribly wrong, waiting with excitement and with pride for his one son.

_Priori Incantatem_ brings you back for a few short moments. Your simple request breaks my heart. Even in death, you try to ease the suffering of others. _Take my body back to my parents …_

As Harry Portkeys you back, he weeps with me. He continues to weep as he rages against Dumbledore who is trying to remove him from you, he continues to weep as the crowd slowly realises that something has gone so dreadfully wrong and falls into silent horror.

But it is the almost inhuman cry of pain that comes as Harry is being led away by Alastor that further breaks my already shattered heart. Your father goes from joy to tense to terrified in the space of a few short seconds. As he falls to his knees beside you, your eyes glazed and unseeing, he takes your face and keens a call of grief so profound that it carries through the entire stadium without the need of a _Sonorus_ spell. Your father, who has always told others how proud he is of you, how much he loves you, realises that he will now need to start saying things in past tense. He remembers the last embrace you gave him, how excited and happy you were, then he looks at you lying on the ground, bruised, cut, _dead_, and it is too much. Screams of pain, of "my boy, my boy! My son, my Cedric …" rent the air. For him, every parent's worse nightmare comes true, and I weep as I see the light die in his eyes.

Your father consents to a Hogwarts funeral for you. He knows how much you loved Hogwarts, and he could never deny you anything. Especially not now. During the service, his heart still burns with pride for you as he sees how loved you were by the rest of the students. His heart will _always_ burn with pride for you. But now, he must learn to live without you. He must learn to go on with life, without his pride and joy that he has loved and cherished for almost two decades. Now, all he has left is a memory. And I weep with him, as does everyone else, at Albus Dumbledore's last words:

"Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice, between what is right, and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort.

"Remember Cedric Diggory."


End file.
